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Time To Tell The Boss Goodbye

How to Give Notice Professionally While Staying Focused on Your
Future

You made the decision to leave. You put together a competitive resume,
circulated it through professional recruiters and online, interviewed with
too many potential new employers, and finally found the perfect next job.
The offer letter has been signed and the start date agreed upon; now all you
need to do is resign. For many, this feels like a moment of disloyalty they
dread having to deal with as they face a boss they have worked hard for over
this most recent portion of their career. For others this seems like the
opportunity to lay it all on the line as they have long dreamed of doing.

What to do?

How does one give notice appropriately while keeping one’s eyes firmly
focused on the new career choice? This isn’t something that is taught in
high school, college or even graduate school. Most approach this critical
career juncture flying by the seat of their pants, mimicking what they have
seen others do incorrectly, and for that reason, they do it wrong too.

Never use this opportunity to “get back at” or “let them know” all that
is wrong. It just doesn’t matter, and your reference is far too valuable for
your future to risk the one-day satisfaction of telling a boss you didn’t
love, where to go with all the seeming injustices you suffered in his or her
employ. Most young professionals will have at least 9 jobs between the ages
of 18 and 34; you’ll need all of your references as you build your career in
today’s competitive workplace. Don’t blow one of them on a moment of empty
satisfaction. As you become more entrenched in your career beyond your 30’s,
it should be obvious why past employer references are critical in any
profession that gets uncomfortably small as you move up into the executive
ranks.

Giving your notice of resignation should be a simple, thoughtful and
carefully planned event that reduces your stress and focuses on the one and
only thing that is really critical: making the transition of your departure
as smooth as possible for the employer you are leaving. With that singular
focus, you can get done what you must for your old job and leave your old
employer in the best position you can while you mentally begin to focus on
your new employer.

So what must be considered?

First, remember that giving notice means you are crossing a point of no
return. It is almost never a good idea to give notice without a new job
first, and, depending on how far up the executive ranks you have gone, you
probably shouldn’t give notice until an offer letter has been received,
reviewed, signed and given back to your new employer. Let’s assume that this
has been done or that a firm mutual verbal agreement has confirmed your
position, salary and start date.

The next question is when to give notice. The answer: immediately, or as
soon as possible, after you have tendered an official acceptance of a new
offer of employment. There is one big exception: Never do this on a Friday,
above all not on Friday afternoon. Would you want your weekend ruined in
that manner through the loss of a key top performer? Ideally, it is best to
give notice on Monday or Tuesday in the later part of the day.

Remember, also, that no matter how close you are to some of your
co-workers, peers, or even subordinates, never tell anyone else about your
resignation before you tell the boss. It is your boss’s responsibility, and
right, to tell the rest of the team or company about your resignation as he
or she sees fit. Don’t blow a reference or leave a bad impression by
ignoring this rule.

Your next important issue is a written letter of resignation. Having seen
hundreds of these over my 20 years, I can tell you that less is more. I
suggest a simple, four-sentence, two-paragraph letter that offers little in
the way of an explanation. It just states the obvious – you are resigning:

Dear Boss,

Please accept this letter as my official notice of resignation. I
appreciate the work we have been able to accomplish together at [company
name], but I have now made a commitment to another organization and will
begin with them in two weeks.

Know that it is my intention to work diligently with you to wrap up as
much as possible in the next two weeks to make my resignation as smooth as
possible. If you have any suggestions on how we can best accomplish that
goal, I hope you will share your thoughts with me, as I am eager to leave on
the most positive note possible.

Sincerely,

Two of the biggest simple mistakes job changers make in their letters of
resignation are to say in, some form, “I’m sorry for leaving” or “Thank you
for the opportunity to work here.” Both should be avoided. Why should you
say you are sorry for leaving when your current employers couldn’t do what
was necessary to keep you in their employ, however that may have been
accomplished? They should be saying they are sorry to YOU, for not doing
what they could to keep a key performer. More or less the same thing with
“Thank you”— they should be thanking YOU for your good work. Sure, it might
be fine to express verbal thanks, or regret, but never put it in your
official resignation letter. It just doesn’t belong there.

But the biggest mistake made in the letter of resignation is too much
detail. I have seen resigning employees list the reasons they are leaving,
tell the employer where they accepted the new job, why they accepted it,
their position, responsibilities, salary and bonus structure. Why would you
share this competitive intelligence with a soon-to-be FORMER employer and
possible competitor of your new employer? This is confidential information,
information that can only be used to emotionally or actually sabotage your
new situation. (Yes, I’ve seen it done, once even calling the new boss and
telling him all the reasons why he just made a bad hire. Really! Fortunately
it didn’t work – the new boss knew a good hire then he saw one.) Or it can
be used as a tool for your old employer to make you a counteroffer. If your
intention is not really to change jobs, but rather to elicit a counteroffer
in order to get a raise from your current boss, then you have not read the
research on why this amounts to career suicide. We assume you know better.

After you have crafted a resignation letter, you must give it to the
boss. With few exceptions, you should do this in a face-to-face meeting.
Thus it is your responsibility to arrange for a meeting, and if you arrange
the meeting, it is your responsibility to have an agenda for it. Should the
boss want to know what the meeting is about, simply say it is a matter of
“personal concern that needs to be addressed confidentially.”

As you walk into the meeting, have your letter of resignation in hand in
an envelope. To start the meeting, hand your boss the envelope and say
something like:

“Boss, I have made a commitment to join another organization and will
begin working with them in two weeks. Please accept this, my letter of
resignation. I would ask that you take a minute to read my letter before we
discuss together how we can make my transition as smooth as possible.”